Roy Face

ElRoy Leon Face (February 20, 1928 – February 12, 2026), nicknamed "The Baron of the Bullpen", was an American right-handed relief pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1953 to 1969, almost entirely for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with whom he made the forkball pitch famous. A pioneer of modern relief pitching in the archetype of what came to be known as the closer, he was the standard for National League relievers at the time of his retirement and set numerous records along the way.

While Face stood only 5 ft 7½ in (1.71 m) and weighed 150 pounds (68 kg), he overcame any physical shortcomings with a bulldog mentality, rubber arm and forkball that was the talk of baseball. The diminutive reliever also relied on consistent control of his pitches, which he said came naturally but teammates attributed to hard work. His parents were Joseph A. Face Sr. and Bessie Rose (Williams) Face. Among other things, Joseph worked in a saw mill, as a farmer, started his own logging business, and was a teamster handling horses for the Stephentown highway department. Joseph was also a well-known square dance caller from the 1920s to the 1950s. As a child, Face frequently incurred the wrath of his father for throwing stones through glass windows.

Face was a member of the baseball team at Averill Park High School, near Albany, New York. He pitched the team to a conference championship in 1945. He then served in the U.S. Army from February 1946 to July 1947, where he was on the base softball team.

In 1951, Face continued his upward trajectory in the Class A Western League with the Pueblo Dodgers (23–9 with a 2.78 ERA). He led the league in wins and was in the top-10 in ERA as well as bases on balls per nine innings pitched.

In 1952 with Fort Worth in the Double-A Texas League, Face had a 14–11 record with a 2.83 ERA. He averaged 3.1 bases on balls per nine innings and 5.8 strikeouts per nine innings pitched for Pueblo; and only 2.3 bases on balls per nine innings at Fort Worth (6th best in the Texas League among pitchers with at least 10 wins).

In his first four minor league seasons he had a 69–27 record. At that point in his career, he only had a fastball and curveball.

Face achieved his future success almost exclusively with the forkball, which he reportedly had learned directly from New York Yankees’ reliever Joe Page. It has also been reported that Face learned the forkball by observing Page during Page's time with the Pelicans in 1954, at a time when Page was trying to make a comeback after his days pitching for the Yankees had ended.

Face returned to the Pirates for the 1955 season, when he appeared in 42 games as both a starter and reliever. He had a 5–7 record and 3.58 ERA. Of those 68 games, only 3 were starts. Face led the NL with 20 saves,

In 1959 Face posted an 18–1 record, including 17 victories in a row to begin the year, after ending 1958 with five in a row. The 22 game win streak went from June 7, 1958, to September 10, 1959, before he lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 11, 1959. although he did not receive any votes for the Cy Young Award that year. (At the time, only first-place votes were cast for the award.) His 18 relief wins remain the major league record, topping Jim Konstanty's previous mark of 16 set in 1950. Face's .947 winning percentage exceeded the previous record .938 (15–1), set by Johnny Allen in 1937. In each of the victories, Face pitched at least one inning out of the bullpen. Eight times he hurled three frames or more. His season-high came against the Cubs on June 18 in Chicago, where he pitched five scoreless innings to nail down a 4-2 triumph in 13 innings that extended his personal streak to 11 in a row.

In 1960, Face had his second 20-save season, With the Pirates winning their first pennant since 1927, he also led the league in games again, tying his own team record of 68. The mark stood until 1966, when teammate Pete Mikkelsen appeared in 71 games.

In 1960, Face led the NL in pitching appearances, pitched 114.2 innings, saved 24 games, and had a 2.90 ERA. In the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees, Face became the first pitcher to save three games in a single Series (formally credited after saves became an official statistic in 1969). Face pitched 10.1 innings in the series, and saved Games 1, 4, and 5 for the Pirates. before giving up a 2-run Elston Howard home run in the ninth but getting a game-ending double play for a 6–4 win. He came into Game 4 with two men on and one out in the seventh inning, leading 3–2, and retired all eight men he faced. In Game 5, he was again brought in with two men on and one out in the seventh, this time leading 4–2, and retired eight of the last nine batters, allowing only a walk to Mantle. The Pirates came back to score five runs in the bottom of the inning after Face was pulled for a pinch-hitter, and won the game and the Series in the bottom of the ninth on Bill Mazeroski's home run.

Two months later, Face gained more nation-wide notoriety on the Ed Sullivan Show , where the host handed the pitcher a baseball to illustrate his money pitch to the audience.

"Well, Ed, I hold it between my first two fingers like that without any seams, and I throw it straight overhand like the fastball," Face explained. "And the ball will usually sink."

"I think that's unfair to our organized Yankees," Sullivan replied, to which Face could only smile.

Face was selected to play in the All-Star each year from 1959 to 1961, including both All-Star Games in 1959, the first of which was held in Pittsburgh. He pitched in each game that season. Face again led the NL with 17 saves in 1961. In 1962 he broke McDaniel's NL record with a career-high 28 saves (one short of Luis Arroyo's major league mark set the previous year), also posting a 1.88 ERA; At that point, Face had three 20-save seasons at a time when no other pitcher had more than one. Also in 1962, he passed Clem Labine for the NL record in career saves (95) then broke Johnny Murphy's major league mark (107).

In 1963, Face earned 16 saves before he suffered two difficult seasons, picking up only four saves in 1964 with an ERA over 5.00 In 1967, he appeared in 61 games, going 7-5 with a 2.45 ERA. (Face pitched in 848 total games, including two with the American League Detroit Tigers, a total which Tekulve surpassed by over 200).

After 43 appearances, 13 saves, and a 2.60 ERA for the Pirates in 1968, Face's contract was sold to the Detroit Tigers on August 31. The Tigers went to the 1968 World Series, but Face was not included on the roster. He was released by the Tigers in early April 1969. In 1970, he pitched 8 games in Triple A for the Hawaii Islanders.

Legacy and honors In a 16-season career, Face posted a 104–95 record with a 3.48 ERA and 877 strikeouts in 1375 innings pitched and 848 games. Tug McGraw surpassed his league record for career innings in relief in 1983. Face's 802 games with the Pirates equaled Walter Johnson's total with the Washington Senators for the most by any pitcher with a single club; Face saved 16 or more games seven times in an era when starting pitchers were more apt to remain in a game they were leading, and seven times had an ERA under 3.00 with at least 40 appearances.

He is a member of the Pirates Hall of Fame, is the team's all-time leader in pitching appearances (802), and holds the National League record for wins by a relief pitcher (96).

Personal life and death During his baseball career, Face, in keeping with a family tradition extending back two generations, worked as a carpenter during the off-season. Following his retirement, this became his full-time occupation, and beginning in 1979, Face served as the carpentry foreman at Mayview State Hospital until his retirement in 1990. Face was a longtime resident of North Versailles, Pennsylvania.

Face died on February 12, 2026, at the age of 97.